


i know that you're out of love

by wewouldremembertonight



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, a.k.a bonnie and damon are soulmates, elena approves of Bamon's relationship and knows he will get over Elena, elena reflecting on Bonnie and Damon's relationship, set during 6x22, so a kind of coda, this is not delena at all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-31 12:18:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3977743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wewouldremembertonight/pseuds/wewouldremembertonight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s the kind that poets may not write about - not star crossed lovers, romantic and fairytale-like, not destructive and heartbreaking either but that doesn’t matter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i know that you're out of love

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from the song, "Love Me or Leave Me", by Kerli

Elena smiles at him, melancholy seeping in at the edges but there’s also a sort of contentedness in it, she knew he would be in safe hands. He will be happy - happier - without her in his life for a while. He should be, shouldn’t be tied down by her and unable to do what truly made him happy.

Even if it is without her.

It hurts her but it makes her happy. With all of her memories back, the good and the bad, she knows for sure that it will be okay. They all will be - Matt, Tyler, Stefan, Bonnie, Jeremy and Caroline - because they deserved a life that didn’t revolve around her. Elena understood that now - a life without sacrificing themselves for her. Especially Bonnie.

She brought her hand up to stroke his face, fingertips tracing the fine lines of his cheek and jaw. This is the last time she would see him in a long time, and she will savour it.

“You could’ve just told me what to do.” Damon said, sorrow showing blatantly on his face but there was also something else - relief, she believed.

No, he needed to make this choice for himself and she was glad of it. Elena had known who he would choose and she was glad that he did - Bonnie’s life was more important than hers. She wouldn’t ask Damon or Bonnie to give it up, not anymore.

“I knew what you were going to do.” She answers, and she did. Because he was Damon Salvatore, and he was selfish, reckless, and impulsive. But he also loved deeply, fully, and she had always known that he loved Bonnie.

That he would pick her.

Memoryless Elena not only forgot the good memories of Damon, she also forgot the telltale signs of their relationship building right in front of her - reluctant enemies slowly growing into best friends. She was glad that it had came into fruition, glad that in her final moments she was whole again.

Damon looked at her, incredulous, and her smile softened. _Oh, Damon,_ she sighed in her head. Didn’t he know? Ever since he came back, his heart wasn’t quite in their relationship as it used to be - and it wasn’t just because she removed her memories. No, it was more like a large part of his heart was with someone else. And the two of them didn’t even know it, not quite.

Without her, they would recognize it soon enough.

“You knew that the evil, selfish, Damon Salvatore would give up the love of his life to save her best friend?"

She shook her head at his words, because he wasn’t giving himself enough credit. Wasn’t acknowledging that it wasn’t about her - when it came to Bonnie, it was never about her anymore and she was happy about it.

Their relationship had begun because of her but it shouldn’t grow because he was doing it for Elena.

It was growing because they loved each other, he was doing it for Bonnie.

( _“I’m doing this for Bonnie, Elena, not for you.”_  He had said the first time and looking back on it, she was happy he did. She didn’t want everything to be about her anymore. Because Bonnie wasn’t just important to her - she was important to him as well.)

Even if he couldn’t quite grasp it himself.

But she knew, she had always known, even when she forgot. Even if she was never in that prison world with him, she had seen in it the looks on his face, the way his eyes widen, how he said her name. He loved her, not kind of but fully. And she was happy, even if a part of herself was a little sad.

They both deserved true happiness.

“I know that the love of my life would stand by _his_ best friend even if it meant he had to live without me for a little while.” She corrects him, not missing the way his eyebrows furrow a little, as she wound her arms around his neck. He didn’t realize it at all, did he? How deep his feelings for Bonnie seem to run? And she didn’t blame him for it, it was always there in the first place - and then when two people go through something as life changing as being in a Prison World for 4 months of their lives?

It changed you.

And it changed Damon’s feelings for Elena (and Bonnie, especially her). He didn’t know it but he wasn’t loving her like he used to, didn’t feel it quite as deeply. In some ways, though he didn’t realize it, he was picking between loving her or leaving her. Though she knew, in reality, he picked his best friend, someone whom he loved so deeply that he didn’t even know that his face lit up with stars when he heard her voice, like something aligned in him that was missing before.

And she knew what it was like to be changed, to have something change your life forever - for better or for worse.

If she slipped away now, when their bond was a strong as ever, she knew that they would come to love each other in a way they didn’t realize. Bonnie could make him happy in a way she never could. Challenge him in a way that made him better, not worse, have trust that solidified a relationship forever.

It’s the kind that poets may not write about - not star crossed lovers, romantic and fairytale-like, not destructive and heartbreaking either but that doesn’t matter.

It’s the kind of relationship that people need - to have trust and belief as friends, to protect each other and carry each other, to be willing to stand up to each other and push each other to make themselves want to do better, the kind of relationship that no matter - whether fighting in rage or hurting each other with barbs, whether bantering with sarcastic comments and sly smirks, they would have each other backs.

The kind of healthiness that she and Damon never had.

She leans up to kiss him, and there’s a finality to it, as Damon whispers about how life will be dull without her. And her chest falls at that.

“No, they’re not Damon, because you aren’t going to be sitting around waiting for me.”

 _Don’t wait for me,_ she pleads with her heart. _Live your life, live the life you deserve to have without me._

 _Live it with Bonnie,_ a part of her whispers.

“Damon,” She pleads, this time vocalizing it, as she uses a hand to turn his face towards her. “I need you to live your life. Enjoy yourself. I want you to be happy.”

 _Be happy with Bonnie, Damon,_ she thinks as her hands clasp around his. He won’t realize it at first, he’ll feel guilty - she knows - but she hopes that he will realize that this is what she wants. In time, it will take time but they will finally know. They will finally realize how much they love each other, and Elena hopes that Damon will continue to pick Bonnie.

Because for the first time in her life, someone was putting Bonnie first, was choosing Bonnie over Elena when she needs it the most. Doing something they all should’ve done a long time ago. They were going to live their happy lives without her and she was fine with that.

When she woke up, one day in the far future, she will wake up knowing that her friends had lived their lives to the fullest.

That Damon and Bonnie let themselves feel what they deserved to feel. They had been lonely for far too long in a way that souls are, in a way that she can’t connect with Damon but Bonnie can.

They deserve to be happy.

“Bonnie and Damon… Who would’ve thought?” Elena whispers aloud as they dance, slow and sweet for the last time (he doesn’t know that yet but he will) as she clings to him. She allows herself this last moment. No dramatics, no fights. Just the two of them, their bodies pressed together and intimate that reminds her of Miss Mystic Falls.

Damon doesn’t say anything to it, just continues to sway to imaginary music as they dance on the road. He will realize what the words mean in due time. She allows herself to be the love of his life for this final dance, let’s him have it.

He needs it, to realize that he will come to love somebody else, somebody who has always been there for him.

“Are you ready for this?”

Elena already knows the answer, has known since she brought herself to say this last goodbye. He is ready, even if he doesn’t know it yet.

“Ready to spend the next 60 years of my life without you? Who’s ever going to be ready for that?”

_You._

“I love you, Damon Salvatore”. She says instead, knows that he needs to hear it for a final time as he says it back. And it’s true, she does love him - she always will, like how she will always love Stefan but he’ll move on, and she will too. And at least she’ll move on with her memories intact, knowing the good and the bad of what they had.

Apart of herself wishes she could be there for what happens between Bonnie and Damon but it’s a selfish wish. You can’t always get what you want, and she wants Bonnie to be happy.

 _So leave me,_ she whispers to herself as the dream fades, as she loses contact with his body and smiles to herself. _You have always loved Bonnie Bennett._

 _Let me go, and love her with all your heart instead,_ is her final thought, words left unspoken between them but she doesn’t need to say them, his heart will know in time.

And then there’s nothing.


End file.
